Fort Pond Bay facts for kids

Fort Pond Bay is a beautiful bay in Montauk, New York.

Fort Pond Bay is a cool bay located in Montauk, New York. It's part of the Long Island Sound. This bay was once the very first important port at the end of Long Island. It has a long and exciting history, filled with stories about ships, soldiers, and local people.

A Look Back at Fort Pond Bay

Early Days and the American Revolution

Fort Pond Bay showing the original area where Montauk was formed and where Long Island Rail Road tracks run. During the American Revolution, colonial troops pretended to have more soldiers on the hill to scare off the British in 1775.

People first saw Fort Pond Bay on a map made in 1655. This map, created by John Scott, showed a fort belonging to the Montaukett Native Americans right on the bay's edge.

In the early days, settlers in the area raised cattle and sheep on the hills above the bay. During the American Revolutionary War, British warships sailed into the bay in 1775. This was during the Siege of Boston. Local soldiers, led by Captain John Dayton, used a clever trick. They pretended to have more men than they did. They turned their coats inside out and marched back and forth on a high hill. This trick, called Dayton's Ruse, scared off the British ships!

The HMS Culloden was a British warship that ran aground near Fort Pond Bay.

Long Island was controlled by the British throughout the war. They used Fort Pond Bay to block ships from reaching Connecticut. In 1781, a British warship called HMS Culloden ran aground. It happened during a storm in January while chasing a French ship. The Culloden hit a rock and had to be sunk in the bay near Culloden Point. Its cannons were thrown overboard, and the ship was burned. Today, the remains of this ship are part of the only underwater park on Long Island.

Later in the 1700s, a small fishing village called Montauk was started at the southeast corner of the bay.

The 19th Century and Beyond

The USS Washington and La Amistad at Culloden Point.

The Amistad memorial at Montauk Point State Park on Long Island.

In 1839, a ship called the Amistad anchored in Fort Pond Bay. This happened near Culloden Point. The crew members who were still alive tried to trick the revolted captives into thinking they had returned to Africa. The crew went to the village of Montauk to get supplies. While they were there, the American ship USS Washington seized the Amistad in the bay.

In the 1890s, a man named Austin Corbin extended the Long Island Rail Road to Montauk. He wanted to make Montauk a big port for ships coming from overseas. His friend, Arthur Benson, bought a lot of land around the village. The railroad started telling people that they could save a day of travel. They could dock their ships in Montauk and take the train to New York City. Corbin even built a steel pier into the bay for these big ships. However, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warned that the bay had too many rocks.

This big dream never quite came true. Instead, the U.S. Army bought the land for Camp Wikoff. After the Spanish–American War, Theodore Roosevelt and his famous Rough Riders came by ship into the bay. They stayed at Camp Wikoff to be quarantined because of worries about yellow fever.

The original fishing village was destroyed in the terrible Great Hurricane of 1938. During World War II, the Navy took over the area. They used it as a base for seaplanes and dirigibles (blimps). The old dock is still used today. The fishing village of Montauk was moved about a mile south, closer to the Atlantic Ocean.

After World War II, many boats stopped using Fort Pond Bay because of flooding and rocks. Now, most boats dock in the dredged Lake Montauk. In the 1960s, homes called Leisurama were built on the hills above the bay. These were inexpensive vacation homes.